The Virtual Memories Show
A weekly conversation about books, art, comics and culture -- not necessarily in that order. Hosted by Gil Roth
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Episode 654 - ML Rio
09/16/2025
Episode 654 - ML Rio
With her amazing new novel, (Simon & Schuster), author, critic, and inveterate road-tripper evokes the rock scene of the '80s and the travails of the not-quite-Almost-Famous band GIL AND THE KILLS. We talk about the redemptive & destructive power of rock & roll, how music is inseparable from her writing process, the challenge of writing about live performance, why it makes sense that "the girl with the Shakespeare degree is writing a rock & roll novel," and why she couldn't gloss over the sweatiness of touring and road trips. We get into the literature gap of people in their 30s (esp. women), how this novel evolved with her over a decade, what it's like operating in male-dominated spaces like music criticism, why she's going out on a and trying to make it as fun as a rock tour (including merch!), what it means to be an ethical eavesdropper, how she stays safe (and well fed) while solo road-tripping around America, and the joy of radio crime drama. We also discuss the obsessiveness of record collectors, the loss of nuance in literature, the warping influence of Catholicism (and the perils of reading Shakespeare and Bret Easton Ellis way too young), our first concerts (her: Green Day, me: Asia), and a lot more. Follow M.L. on , and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 653 - David Leopold
09/10/2025
Episode 653 - David Leopold
Curator and archivist rejoins the show for a wide-ranging talk centered on the amazing new (Abrams ComicArts). We talk about David's decades as Hirschfeld's archivist, Sondheim's love of Hirschfeld's work, the process of making his first book of Hirschfeld's art that focuses on a single creator, the connections between Al & Sondheim in David's text pieces for the book, and the joy of getting an intro from Bernadette Peters. We get into the work that the does for regional theaters, why the drop-off of arts criticism is a disaster for culture, how younger people experience and appreciate Hirschfeld's art, and the time David held a seance at the Algonquin to promote the . We also discuss our all-time fave Prince songs, what it's like being an archivist in a post-object world, the that blew his mind, his new exhibitions at the , how the next generation of theater organists (!) is getting trained, how aware Sondheim and Hirschfeld were that they were making history in their lifetimes, and more. Follow David & the Al Hirschfeld Foundation on , , , , • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 652 - Dmitry Samarov
09/03/2025
Episode 652 - Dmitry Samarov
It's been a year since his last episode, so what's artist been up to? Plenty! We talk about his new project of redesigning and illustrating public domain books, why he started off with the , and why was next in line, what the common themes are among the six books he's illustrated since this project began, and how it all ties into his reaction to the 2024 election. We get into what it's like working with publishers after controlling his own books for years, how he discovered James Hogg's on SOME OTHER PODCAST (okay, it was ), how he's exploring visual interpretation and different tools with each book, and how this project has him reading and rereading differently than he used to. We also talk about how he looks back at his art in the wake of his self-monograph, how he got into a relationship with someone after a long time solo (after a showing of why Cronenberg's not-good ), what other books he's considering illustrating, his new series of 'zines about bookselling, the joy of Moby Dick's tangents, and more. Follow Dmitry at and through , and buy some books from • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 651 - AMA
08/26/2025
Episode 651 - AMA
No guest this week, so it's time for our first Ask Me Anything (AMA) episode ! Past guests and pals peppered me with questions about the podcast, my reading habits, menswear aesthetics, mental health, comics, hair care, keeping a journal, work/life balance or lack thereof, the one episode I think people are sleeping on, Star Trek vs. Star Wars, the superpower I wish I had, and a lot more. I dish some pod-secrets, talk about the episodes that will never air, and tell you where I buy my underwear, so go listen! Follow me on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 650 - Dan Goldman
08/19/2025
Episode 650 - Dan Goldman
With (Kinjin Storylab), writer/cartoonist brings us a wildly entertaining graphic novel of midlife, the afterlife, and the south Florida real estate market. We talk about how the concept for RLP grabbed hold of him 20+ years back & never let go, why the story had to take place in/around Miami, how his work in video games and TV/movies affected his world-building in comics. We get into the peak life experiences of making this book, the transition from digital to print, why he set the book in landscape, the role of the "invisible" elements of comics design, the impact Scott McCloud's had on him, why the of Red Light Properties — Gut Renovations — will be "singles, not albums," how it felt to work with Kickstarter and control every aspect of Unfinished Business' design & production, all while reveling in our shared comic loves. We also discuss turning 50, whether cocaine is ever a good story device, his sensitivity to hauntings, why he needs to quit comics every so often, the effect had on him (esp. Grant Morrison's letter columns), the paradox of choice and the joy of the analog-hunt, his prose writing and why he tells stories that are 83% true, and plenty more. Follow Dan on , and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 649 - David Levithan and Jens Lekman
08/13/2025
Episode 649 - David Levithan and Jens Lekman
With (Abrams Press), writer and singer-songwriter bring the collaborative alchemy, as 20 years of fandom/friendship lead to this wonderful novel about a Swedish singer-songwriter — J — who finds a side-career playing original songs at people's weddings. We talk about the power of a great song, how David & Jens traded writing prompts with each other — a wedding song leading to a chapter, a chapter leading to a wedding song —, discovered how differently they each look at love, and managed to fuse that tension into a story of how love changes over time. We get into the differences between stories and songs, how Jens had fallen out of love with music (blame Spotify) and how this book helped him fall back in love with it, whether they'll write a sequel about funerals, and how Jens' song, "" led to his side-career as a wedding singer. We also discuss inspired by the book, David's upcoming , the ways collaboration helps create new structures, what it means to be alone, how our private lives can get drowned by our public ones, their book/music tour and the importance of face-to-face interaction, the value of emotionally honest fiction, and more, including numerous Nick Cave references. Follow Jens on , and , and check out David's and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 648 - Sacha Mardou
08/05/2025
Episode 648 - Sacha Mardou
With (Avery), cartoonist brings us a phenomenal graphic memoir about the midlife process of overcoming lifelong traumas and anxiety. We talk about her decision to to make her therapy process (& sessions) public, first as and then as a Past Tense, the benefits of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, what it took to violate the English stiff upper lip and admit that she had problems and needed therapy, and her mother's Jehovah Witness conversion and how she's still sifting through the damage of that. We get into how therapy changed her relationship to her daughter, why corniness is no reason to avoid addressing/admitting one's inner child (and the work I needed to do to truly appreciate Past Tense), the strong, supportive and sympathetic public response to her online therapy comics and how she wound up going back to her therapist to deal with the shame-cycle of that, and how her families (and therapists) feel about seeing themselves in the book. We also discuss Sacha's indy comics upbringing, her marriage to fellow cartoonist and whether that means her daughter has any hope for a non-cartooning career, how she feels like her art is always catching up to her writing, how we feel about Gen X getting overlooked, her Doris Lessing binge during perimenopause, and a lot more. Follow Sacha on , and , and check out her and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 647 - Oliver Radclyffe
07/28/2025
Episode 647 - Oliver Radclyffe
With his phenomenal debut memoir, (Roxane Gay Books/Grove Atlantic), takes us on a journey into trans-selfhood. We talk about the gap between a trans narrator and a cis-het reader, the importance of trans visibility, how his understanding of masculinity and being male have changed, and how he faced down the risks and sacrifices in his life as he transitioned, despite the uncertainty of what lay ahead. We get into how he found the perfect voice for his memoir, the importance of on his writing process, his life-defining moment of seeing , why being raised in privilege explained why he knew so little about the queer world, the surprisingly wonderful support his (conservative Christian) parents gave him throughout his journey, and why the book focuses on his pre-transition life. We also discuss whether he looks at photos of his pre-transition self, how testosterone has affected his life, how gender can shift with age, how the joy of publishing his first book has transformed him (and how he hopes it leads to a long mid-to-late-life writing career), whether he's ready to be an empty-nester, what it means to find validation through performance and defining oneself through relationships, why he identifies as a gender-irrelevant transsexual, and a lot more. Follow Oliver on and and subscribe to • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 646 - Eulogy
07/15/2025
Episode 646 - Eulogy
No conversation this week, unless you count me talking to myself. This episode, I share some thoughts and memories about my father, following his death last week at the age of 88 — or 87, depending on who he was lying to — along with the eulogy I gave at his funeral. • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 645 - Rachel Cockerell
06/30/2025
Episode 645 - Rachel Cockerell
How did Russian Jews wind up migrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1900s? How did the image of America as melting pot come into existence? How did a family memoir evolve into a forgotten history of Zionism? Find out during my conversation with about her amazing new book, (FSG)! We talk about the tightrope walk of composing a history solely out of primary sources and why she eschewed the author's voice for this book, her grudging acceptance of Robert Caro's maxim to , and how her perspective on Jewishness changed over the course of writing the book. We get into the once-titanic literary figure of and how he gave it up to find a homeland for the world's Jews, how Zangwill invented the notion of the melting pot and whether he truly believed in assimilationism, the inspiration of George Saunders' on Melting Point, and how Rachel got over the notion that the past was just a lead-up to now. We also discuss her next book on Halley's Comet and whether she'll stick with her primary sources-mode in future books, how her family reacted to seeing their stories (& contradictions) on the page, how a 90-year-old distant relative stole the show, and a lot more. Follow Rachel on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 644 - Paul Karasik
06/25/2025
Episode 644 - Paul Karasik
Thirty-plus years in the making, the graphic adaptation of (Pantheon) is here at last! rejoins the show from to talk about the process of adapting Auster's postmodern crime novels into comics, how he collaborated with David Mazzucchelli (CITY OF GLASS) and (GHOSTS) on the first two and how he wound up drawing the third book, THE LOCKED ROOM, how these novels possessed him for decades, and the moment when he understood what each novel was really about. We get into how he met Auster at a parent-teacher conference shortly after the New York Trilogy came out, the moment of truth when Auster first saw the pages for City of Glass, the freedom (and restriction) Auster offered for the project, and whether Auster got to see the finished pages before his death in 2024. We also discuss Paul's comics upbringing, how his mother supported his habit (and maybe melted her son's brain by getting him a book of R. Crumb comics at 12 or 13), his lack of confidence in his drawing and his supreme confidence in his teaching, how meeting Art Spiegelman changed his life, why he's starting an , the immense inspiration of staying at Yaddo (and how he learned The Two Rules Of Yaddo), and a lot more. Follow Paul on , support his , and check out his • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 643 - Kate Maruyama
06/17/2025
Episode 643 - Kate Maruyama
One of my fave guest/friends, , rejoins the show to celebrate her wonderful new novel, (Running Wild Press)! We talk about the book's long gestation/publishing history, Kate's love of old Hollywood & costume design, closeted movie stars and how she told the story of a gay relationship in the '30s & '40s, and how it felt to write a non-horror horror story. We get into her own Hollywood experience in the '90s, how it informs Alterations, and how it felt to repeatedly smash into the glass ceiling, as well as how ghosts creep into everything she writes, how older people become invisible but have stories to tell, and how important it was to have a champion in for this novel. We also discuss present-moment Los Angeles, the craft book about novella-writing she's co-writing, the need to decolonize her writing students, the (maybe non-existent) influence of Jodie Foster's on Alterations, the essay she wrote around the decline & death of her mother, , and more. Follow Kate on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 642 - David Denby
06/09/2025
Episode 642 - David Denby
With his fantastic new book, (Holt), writer and critic explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profiles of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. We talk about how he selected his four subjects, how each of them came of age in an environment that Jews hadn't experienced in millennia, the ways each handled the responsibilities of family against their careers, the difference between "Jew" and "Jewish," and which one unfolded the most to him over the course of writing the book. We get into why Bernstein's greatest role may have been as a teacher, how Mailer's magnetism persisted way beyond its expiration date, how Friedan changed the world but was always challenged by her midwest upbringing, and whether Brooks was being disingenuous when he made musical numbers of our the Inquisition and Hitler. We also discuss judgements David made over the course of his career as a , what he did when he finally gave up reviewing and how he eased back into the cinema, why he revisited the course at Columbia a few years ago, after previously revisiting it 30+ years ago for , his take on my my lightning round of classic lit questions, his non-Le Carré experience in East Berlin, his reaction to my parents taking me to when I was 9, and more. Follow David on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 641 - Peter Stothard
06/03/2025
Episode 641 - Peter Stothard
Can we find the poet in their poems? With (Yale University Press), explores how the life of the great Roman poet unfolds though his art and the histories. We talk about why he wrote this biography through a critical study of Horace's poems (and why that's been a controversial approach), how Horace embodied the artist-as-madman long before the Romantic era, and why it was important to show the alienness of Horace's verse and how nervous Peter was about translating him into English to show how the Latin works. We get into Horace's place in Rome's history, how he bridged Greek poetic modes into Latin, the variety of genres Horace worked in (and invented), and why the poet was cancelled early and often over the centuries. We also discuss mortality and legacy, how Horace & I each reacted to not getting killed by falling trees, why a certain Great Books program is so Athens-centric, how Peter's secondary school introduced him to "INCIPE!," "Sapere Aude," and "Carpe Diem," among other Horace-isms, and more! Follow Peter on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 640 - Cecile Wajsbrot
05/27/2025
Episode 640 - Cecile Wajsbrot
With her bewitching and beautiful novel (Seagull Books, translated from French by , who joins our conversation), takes us on a tour of Chenobyl's Forbidden Zone, the High Line in NYC, Dresden, Paris, under the shadow of the Time Passes section of Virginia Woolf's . We talk about the challenges of writing a first-person novel about translation, the strange ways Woolf has followed Cecile throughout her careers as author & translator, and how it felt to see her novel about translating Virginia Woolf into French get translated into English. We get into her literary career, how Time Passes became a stand-in for her fascination with destruction, why she's translated Woolf's three times over thirty years (and whether the first one got her into the bad graces of the editor of Le Monde de Livres), what it was like to subvert the translator's typical role of invisibility with this novel, and the language she wishes she had. We also discuss mourning and the ways we try to keep conversation alive with those we've lost, the time I impressed the Princess of Yugoslavia by transliterating the Cyrillic on her family's jewels, and more. More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 639 - Keiler Roberts
05/20/2025
Episode 639 - Keiler Roberts
She may be able to quit cartooning (for a while), but can't quit The Virtual Memories Show! With her wonderful new book, (Drawn & Quarterly), Keiler returns to comics with a collection of (mostly) hilarious vignettes about domestic life, middle-age, the impact of multiple sclerosis, and having too many pets. We talk about why she walked away from comics and how she came back, how she avoids memoir in favor of memory (and humor), how she still has anxiety over drawing but is way too tired to have social anxiety anymore, and why she branched into kitschy craft-modes that no one would mistake for art. We get into why she wants her kid to read her journals when she's gone, how MS taught her how to be bored, how men have no idea what perimenopause is like, what it means to be the best appointment of her doctors' day, and the reward of teaching comics to her friends and her mom. We also discuss how helped her back into comics with this book (& encourages her in every other artistic idea she has), how weird it is to see two of Karl's super-detailed pages beside her sparse drawings in Preparing To Bite, and why she loved collaborating with her brother on the grownup fairytale . Plus, she teaches me the difference between living more and doing more, and I read you guys a Rilke poem in the intro. Follow Keiler on , and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 638 - Peter Kuper
05/13/2025
Episode 638 - Peter Kuper
With his new graphic novel, (WWNorton), brings us the 400-million-year history of insects in their own words as they take a post-human tour of the New York Public Library. We talk about how Insectopolis began when he was around 4 years old and saw the 17-year cicada brood, how Peter needed a new mode of comics-making for this book, and how he made the NYPL a key character in the project. We get into mankind's dependence on insects, the stories of forgotten entomologists (and why they were forgotten), his experience getting a at the NYPL during COVID and how he found all the great & secret rooms while the place was near-empty, the that evolved from the fellowship and how it grew in scale, and his realization that entomologists are like comic fans. We also discuss his wife's great advice going into this project, the fun of getting experts to vet every chapter of Insectopolis, the alchemy that happens when people's passions overlap, how he harnesses the dread of imminent apocalypse to make his art, and more. Follow Peter on , and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 637 - Vauhini Vara
05/05/2025
Episode 637 - Vauhini Vara
With (Pantheon), tech writer explores how our sense of self has been co-opted, quantified, and exploited by big tech as a way of selling us more stuff or selling us to third parties. We talk about what we talk about when we talk about our Google searches (& Amazon purchases, Twitter subject preferences, etc.), the interface of exploitation and self-expression, what selfhood means to tech companies vs. what it means to us, and what she learned when she fed chapters of her book into ChatGPT. We get into agency vs. coercion, how the promise of tech so often gets inverted, how ChatGPT tried & , why she brought memoir into SEARCHES alongside its other experimental modes, how her husband serves as a low-tech foil in the book, and whether or not we have a say in how the online era plays out. We also discuss why she doesn't post about her personal life, how the book's multiplicity of voices offsets the corporate voice of ChatGPT, what she got out of , the importance of non-VC-funded technology to help us escape exploitative models of information, whether an essayist ever really changes over the course of an essay, and more. Follow Vauhini on , and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 636 - Craig Thompson
04/30/2025
Episode 636 - Craig Thompson
Artist joins the show at long last to celebrate his new book, (Pantheon). We talk about how he spent ten summers of his childhood helping farm ginseng, how that herb connects rural Wisconsin with China and South Korea, how he balanced history, journalism, economics, and memoir in the pages of his book, and why he chose to make Ginseng Roots as a serial comic rather than a standalone book and how that affected his creative process. We get into how the book serves as a sort of midlife revision of his breakthrough book, , how the last chapter of the book had to happen in near-real-time, how a degenerative condition in his hands became a unifying theme to the book while almost derailing it, how he found the design language of the book and obsessed over a two-color process (to amazing results), and whether this is his swansong for comics (spoiler: it's not!). We also discuss what home means to him, 8 months into being on the road, what it was like discovering that he had a global audience, his ongoing relationship with his evangelical Christian upbringing, his editor's concerns that Ginseng Roots could open him up to accusations of cultural insensitivity (and how he got over it), all while geeking out over our fave cartoonists from the '90s indy period (go, !), and more. Follow Craig on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 635 - Ari Richter
04/22/2025
Episode 635 - Ari Richter
Artist, professor and now like-it-or-not cartoonist joins the show to talk about his fantastic book, (Fantagraphics). We talk about how he he began this project in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre in 2018, how it helped him exorcise the demons of his imagination after a lifetime of hearing his family's stories about the Holocaust, and how the book centered around intergenerational trauma and collaboration. We get into how he incorporated his grandfathers' holocaust memoirs into the book, why he found different styles for each section of the book, what he had to learn about comics storytelling after a career in fine arts, the revelation of reading 's memoirs and why he avoided rereading during the 5 years he worked on this book. We also discuss how drawing comics has changed his brain, why he was stunned by the commercialism of Auschwitz, why he's glad he got a German passport, why comics folks seem friendlier than fine arts people, the insanity of composing his comics pages in Photoshop (and what happens when he forgets to label his layers), and a lot more. Follow Ari on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 634 - Dan Nadel
04/15/2025
Episode 634 - Dan Nadel
Author and curator Dan Nadel joins the show to celebrate the publication of his amazing new biography, (Scribner). We get into Robert Crumb's significance in American art, comics, and culture, Dan's first experience with a Crumb comic (it was an ish of ), the challenge of capturing the underground comics scene of the '60s & '70s, and what it took for him to get over the "R. Crumb" persona and realize how integrated Robert's personality is. We talk about Crumb's role as nexus in the history of comics, the book's focus on Crumb's drawing and how different tools opened him up artistically, what it means to see Crumb as part of tradition and not just a conceptual outlier, how his Crumb differs from the Crumb of , and the one detail he's still dying to find out about Zap Comix. We also discuss Dan's comics and art upbringing, how he found his place as a publisher then , how he was affected by the death of Crumb's wife Aline in 2022, how his museum experience prepared him for writing about the racist and sexist aspects of Crumb's comics, the only cartoonist biography he could tackle after Crumb, whether Crumb's succeeds as comics, and a lot more. Follow Dan on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 633 - See Hear Speak
04/12/2025
Episode 633 - See Hear Speak
No guest? No problem! It's time for another impromptu monologue episode: this time, Gil sorts through family legacies of the genetic and Larkinesque variety, as occasioned by taking his dad for cataract surgery and getting a call from an old & ! Follow Gil on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 632 - Peter Trachtenberg
03/31/2025
Episode 632 - Peter Trachtenberg
With his amazing new book (Black Sparrow Press), explores the 50+ years of history for in the far West Village, the role of the arts in New York City, and the ways we build & sustain community. We get into his long-term history with Westbeth, how this book's was born from an essay about the suicide of his friend and Westbeth resident , how Westbeth managed to survive a series of financial crises over the decades before finding a sustainable model, and how architect Richard Meier repurposed the Bell Labs complex into affordable artists' housing in the 1960s. We talk about Westbeth's requirement that residents be professional artists and what that came to mean over the years (esp. when some residents' productivity diminished), what it's like to raise families in Westbeth, and how the community handled generational change. We also discuss how Westbeth reflects New York back on itself, how Vin Diesel's vandalism as a kid growing up in Westbeth led to his acting career, how the Village's Halloween parade originated there, how I stumbled across Westbeth in 2017 during — what else? — , how we build artistic communities when we don't have geographic proximity, whether there's a secret radioactive room left over from the Bell Labs years (!), and more. Follow Peter on , and subscribe to • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 631 - David Shields
03/26/2025
Episode 631 - David Shields
Author returns to the show for a conversation about his new documentary, , and the companion book, (Sublation Media). We get into how the world moved from the death of God to the death of essence to the death of truth, and how deconstruction, once the province of left-wing academia, was weaponized by right-wing authoritarians for political aims. We talk about how much blame he bears for all this with his 2010 book , how it feels to be a radical with deep skepticism of radicals' language, his affinity for Werner Herzog's notion of the ecstatic truth in documentary films, what he learned from interviewing nonfiction writers about the nature of truth, and how he feels about going to his first WWE event. We also discuss nonlinear warfare and the endless deconstruction of reality, how writing can "build a bridge across the abyss of human loneliness" (per DFW), what he's learned from the collaboration of making documentaries, his fixation on hamartia (the tragic flaw), Walter Benjamin's notion of pursuing the truth even if we'll never reach it, bringing the public, social and personal worlds together in his writing, and a lot more. More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 630 - Meeting Across The River
03/18/2025
Episode 630 - Meeting Across The River
Uh-oh! Gil doesn't have a guest this week, so he recorded a monologue from a hotel room in Weehawken, NJ during a for his day job! He talks mental health, oblique mythology, Charles Crumb, comics and pharma friends, the St. Patrick's Day Parade, and more! Follow Gil on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 629 - Elon Green
03/11/2025
Episode 629 - Elon Green
With (Celadon Books), author brings us an investigation into a terrible episode of police brutality and its aftermath in mid-'80s NYC. We talk about what drew him to the story of , a 25-year-old black artist-model-DJ who died at the hands of transit police in 1983, his amazement that no one else had written this book, and how his early assumptions about a coverup gave way to a different coverup. We get into how he so wonderfully evokes the gritty NYC of that era, spreading out a canvas that takes in the arts scene — think Haring, Basquiat, Madonna — and the awful crimes and police behavior — think Bumpurs, Goetz — of that era. We discuss the art of interviewing people 40+ years after an event without reopening old wounds, the judge on the case who talked with him for 3 hours and shared how his conclusions on the verdict changed, what he sees in Stewart's art, how he tries to build the entire environment of the world he's writing about in his books, why he considers himself a history writer (& despises the "true crime" label & genre), why being a good journalist means having a sense of decency, bringing his to life as an , and more. Follow Elon on and • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 628 - Vanda Krefft
03/04/2025
Episode 628 - Vanda Krefft
Biographer returns to the show to celebrate her wonderful & illuminating new book: (Algonquin Books). We talk about the turn of the (20th) century origins of Katharine Gibbs & her school, the legacy of her executive secretarial course for generations of women, "Gibbs Girls'" descendants' desire to honor their family members, the incredible quality of faculty Gibbs was able to recruit, the risks women had to take to enter the professional workforce, and the Trojan Horse campaign of teaching women to learn how businesses work until they're able to run them themselves. We get into Vanda's desire to write about people who were overlooked in history, how this book veered away from her initial idea, how it required a different mode than , the challenges of century-old research into women's lives, what she had to learn about the history of women in America, the myth that the 1920s were liberating for women, and her interest in mid-century America. We also discuss how the Gibbs school declined when the family finally sold it in the late '60s, what she'd like her next book to be about, her experience living in Santa Monica during the LA fires, a lengthy aside about publishing and the changes I've seen, getting inspired by 's book on , and a lot more. Follow Vanda on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 627 - Seth Lorinczi
02/25/2025
Episode 627 - Seth Lorinczi
With (Spiral Path Collective Press), explores how trauma can be transmitted over generations, and how an ancient (& new) form of treatment can help overcome it. We talk about finding his family's story of the Holocaust, trying to understand why so much of it stayed hidden, how badly it warped his life, and how he & his wife found answers in psychedelic medicine (MDMA, ayahuasca, toad (!)). We get into the long-term damage of unmetabolized trauma and untouched grief, how psychedelics allowed him to recognize patterns in his life, family history, and the universe, the challenges of researching his family's Holocaust experience in Hungary, how his experiences led to a memoir (& a saved marriage), why Death Trip is a series of surrenders, how his close and distant relatives responded to the book, and why he thinks I should leapfrog therapy and try psychedelics first. We also discuss growing up in the punk scene of Washington, DC (and writing his next book about that), how coincidence becomes important after psychedelic experiences, how some married couples take up salsa dancing but he & his wife took up ayahuasca, how his daughter responded to all this, whether a person can change, how once you get the message you should put down the phone, and a lot more. Follow Seth on and subscribe to his newsletter • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 626 - Martin Mittelmeier
02/18/2025
Episode 626 - Martin Mittelmeier
With (Yale University Press, tr. Shelley Frisch), traces the roots of the Frankfurt School in southern Italy. We talk about the epiphany on the lip of a volcano in Lanzerote that brought this book to life, the years he spent poring over Theodor Adorno's writing (and the temptation to mimic Adorno's style), how Walter Benjamin's principle of porosity arose from both the tuff stone & the way of living of Naples, and the challenge of evoking the Naples of a century ago and how it led to a theory of society. We get into Critical Theory's attempts at understanding populism and oligarchic takeovers and why Adorno is having A Moment in Germany, the fun of speculating about meetings among great thinkers — yeah, I get into George Orwell, Henry Miller, and —, the utopian aspect of local life in Naples and Capri, the complexities of reputation and destiny, and whether Critical Theory can hold up during the hyper-internet era. We also discuss the difficulties of translation with critical theory's associative language, why I need to read Hernán Diaz' , his new work about Thomas Mann working with Adorno on Doctor Faustus in Pacific Palisades (a.k.a. Weimar Under The Palm Trees), how he's changed in the decade-plus since writing the book, and more. • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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Episode 625 - Jonathan Ames
02/11/2025
Episode 625 - Jonathan Ames
Can LA private detective Happy Doll live up to the Four Noble Truths and escape the cycle of Samsara? returns to the show to help answer that question and celebrate his new novel, (Mulholland Books)! We talk about the joy of reading (& writing) page-turners, how his lead character Happy Doll has evolved over three novels (so far!), what it's like bringing Buddhism into a detective novel, and how his (& Happy's) LA has changed since he began this series. We get into how he managed to avoid writing about the worst days of the pandemic while keeping Karma Doll contemporary, how writing the Doll novels has affected his understanding of Buddhism, and how he's living up to the lesson he always gave students: write what you love. We also discuss TV writing and how it took him away from prose-writing for a decade or so, the need to make art and the transitoriness of bliss, how the LA fires left him driving all over the place like he was in a novel, his fave reads & TV shows, how we both played with dolls as kids in the woods of northern NJ, and a lot more. Follow Jonathan on • More info • Support The Virtual Memories Show via , , or , and subscribe to
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